The journal receives
unpublished contributions as original articles, reviews, brief
communications, case reports, photo galleries and letters to the editor,
which are reviewed by national and foreign experts (peers) who have
published similar research previously, they give their blinded opinion
about the quality and validity of their results. The number of reviewers
depends on the type of article, only those articles that have favorable
comments and solve the observations being made are published. The
reviewing time frequently takes between 2 and 6 months depending on the
speed of the reviewers and authors.

Ethics in
publication

In case any fault
against the ethics in publication is detected during the revision
process or after its publication (if it was the case); the Journal will
take the measures set by the Committe on Publication Ethics (www.publicationethics.org.uk),
which can include the rejection or retraction of the article, a
publication ban for subsequent articles in the RPMESP for all of the
authors, the notification to other journals of SciELO Peru, and the
communication to the respective authorities (institution of origin,
institution financing the study, professional colleges, ethics
committees).

Format and preparation of the manuscripts

General Rules

Every article presented
to the RPMESP must be written in Spanish, address issues of interest in
public health and must not have been previously published, or
simultaneously sent to other scientific journals, and they can belong to
one of the following categories:

Editorial;

Original Articles;

Brief communications;

Reviews;

Special Section;

Symposium;

Prominent personalities
in Peru´s Public Health;

Case Report;

Photo Gallery;

Letters to the Editor.

Required
Documentation

This information is
compulsory for any article presented to the RPMESP, its omission will
generate an automatic rejection.

Cover Letter. It
should be signed by the corresponding author, specifying the type of
submitted article. A format of this document can be downloaded at
www.ins.gob.pe/rpmesp/documentos.asp

Publication
Authorization. It must be signed by all the authors, recording their
contribution to the elaboration of the article according to the RPMESP
coding system. The format can be downloaded at
www.ins.gob.pe/rpmesp/documentos.asp

First page. It
must include the title in Spanish and English, a short title of up to 60
characters, the names of the authors as they wish to appear in the
article, the institutional affiliation, city, country, profession and
academic degree, as well as the e-mail of all the authors. The financing
source and conflicts of interest disclosure. Additionally, they must
state the corresponding author, indicating his address, telephone and
e-mail. In case the study has been presented as an abstract in a
congress or is part of a thesis, this must be stated with the
corresponding reference.

Main text. The
following aspects should be observed:

I must be written
in Arial 12 font, in A4 format, with 3 cms. margins.

It must include the
article title but no data about the authors;

Every section starts in
a new page, with consecutive page numbers;

Texts must be written
in Word for Windows XP or Vista software, the figures and tables can be
inserted in the end of the text with their respective legends;

The tables must only
have horizontal lines to separate the heading from the body of the table,
under no circumstances vertical lines can be included;

The figures (statistical
graphs) must be sent in MS-Excel or tif or jpg format, images and maps
must be saved in TIFF or JPG formats, under a resolution of at least 600
dpi or 300 pixels, although they can be included in the last pages of
the article text, they should additionally be sent in the original
program.

The following are
considered as figures: drawings, maps, photos or graphs; they must be
ordered by arabic numerals, the legends of microphotographs must also
indicate the scale and staining method. Maps should also have a scale.
The number of tables and figures depends on the type of article sent.
The journal´s Editor Committee reserves the right to limit their number.

The bibliographic
references will only include those cited in the text, they will be
ordered sequentially according to their appearance and will be written
following the procedures of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts
Submitted to Biomedical Journals of the International Committee of
Editors of Medical Journals, in its updated version of October 2008. The
authors must be highlighted in black fonts, in the case of more than six
authors, “et al” will be added, separated by a coma. Additionally, the
title of the reference will have to record an hyperlink directed to the
web site where one can access the reference, as long as the respective
electronic version exists. Some examples to take on account in the
wording of this section can be found at
www.ins.gob.pe/rpmesp.

Are research products
only, and must be written in up to 3500 words (without taking on account
abstract, references, tables and figures), according to the following
outline:

Abstract: In
spanish or english. It shouldn’t have more than 250 words. This
review is structured, and has to include in a brief way: Objectives,
Materials and Methods, Results and Conclusions.

Key words: From
three to seven, and have to be based on health sciences descriptors (DeCS)
of BIREME and on the Medical Subject Headings (MesH) of the National
Library of Medicine in english.

Introduction:
Brief exposition (less than 25% of the total length of the article)
about the actual situation of the problem, background, rationale and
objective of the study.

Materials and
methods: It describes the methodology used in a way that it allows
its reproduction and the evaluation of the quality of information by the
readers and reviewers. The type and design of the research must be
described, the characteristics of the population and the means of sample
selection when necessary. In some cases, it is suitable to describe the
study area. When medicinal plants are used, the procedures of
recollection and identification must be described. Also point out the
way in which the variables were measured or defined. The procedures done
must be detailed or if previously described, make the respective
citation. Mention the statistical procedures used. Detail the ethical
aspects involved in its performance, as well as the approval by an
Institutional Ethics Committee, the use of informed consent among others.

Results: The
presentation of the findings must be done in a clear fashion, without
any opinions or interpretations other tan the statistical ones. These
can be complemented with up to eight tables or figures, which shouldn’t
repeat the information presented in the text.

Discussion: The
results are interpreted, comparing their findings with those of other
authors, exposing the suggestions, statements or conclusions the author
reaches. Limitations and biases of the study must be included.

Acknowledgements:
When it corresponds, the authors should mention specifically who
they acknowledge and the type of support given in the research.

Conflicts of
interest: If there is any conflict of interest it should be
mentioned.

Bibliographic
references: No more tan 30 references.

Brief originals

These articles result
from an original research, outbreak reports or preliminary research
advances that due to their relevance require a rapid publication, these
will be written in up to 2000 words (without counting abstract,
references, tables and figures) . The abstract is non-structured in
Spanish and English and has a limit of 150 words, with 3 to 5 key words.
It has an introduction, a section called “The Study”- referred to
materials and methods-, then findings- centered in the results- up to 4
tables or figures can be included, discussion and no more than 15
bibliographical references.

Reviews

These can be done on
request from the Editorial Committee or by the author´s initiative, who
can be an expert in the field; they must include an exhaustive,
objective and systematic exploration of the updated information on a
given subject of interest in public health. The structure of the article
is left to the author´s criterion, it must be written in no more than
5000 words (without taking on account abstract, references, tables and
figures, which must be no more than ten. It must include an unstructured
abstract in Spanish and English, with a limit of 150 words, with three
to five key words. Up to 150 bibliographical references can be used.

Symposia

Are written on request
from the Editorial Committee for a given subject l which will be
developed in a specific issue of the journal, they can include
viewpoints or essays about a selected topic. The structure of the
article is left to the author´s criterion, it must be written in up to
4000 words (without taking into account abstract, references, tables and
figures). It must have an unstructured abstract in Spanish and English,
with a limit of 150 words with three to five key words. Up to 100
bibliographical references can be used.

Prominent
Personalities in Public Health in Peru

In this section,
tributes to people that have contributed to public health in Peru are
published, they include a biographical sketch highlighting the main
activities in professional , scientific and academic life of the
scientist, emphasizing his contribution in the area, a photography is
included. It doesn’t require abstract and can or not have bibliographic
references, it can have up to 1800 words.

Special Section

Articles that don’t
fulfill the criteria of the previous journal sections will be
incorporated; these include essays, viewpoints, systematizations and
experiences of interest for public health. The structure of the article
is left to the author´s criterion, it must be written in up to 3000
words (without taking into account abstract, references, tables and
figures, these last must be no more than eight). It must include an
unstructured abstract in Spanish and English, with a limit of 150 words
with three to five key words. Up to 50 bibliographical references can be
used.

Case reports

The presented cases
must be of diseases or situations relevant to public health, they must
be written in up to 2000 words (without taking into account abstract,
references, tables and figures). It must include an unstructured
abstract in Spanish and English, with a limit of 150 words and three to
five key words. It has an introduction, a section called “case report”
and a discussion in which the contribution or main lesson of the article
is highlighted. Up to four tables or figures and no more than 15
bibliographical references can be included.

Photo Gallery

Photographs which are
of interest to a particular health issue can be sent, together with a
brief comment about the topic and an explanation of the origin of the
pictures presented (up to 800 words). The photos must be also be given
with an explanatory legend. The Editorial Committee reserves the right
to limit the number of pictures.

Letters to the
Editor

This section is open to
all the readers of the RPMESP, to which they can send their questions,
comments or criticisms to the articles that have been published in the
last numbers, taking on account the possibility that the authors in
question can answer. Preliminary research communications or outbreak
interventions that have not been published or submitted for publication
in other journals can be accepted, as well as comments about problems in
public health, ethics and medical education. The maximum length to be
accepted is 1000 words (without taking on account references, tables or
figures), with a maximum of six bibliographic references (including the
reference of the article that originated it (when it is the case) and a
table or figure.

Manuscript Submission

The presentation of
articles can be done through a printed form, an original and a copy of
all the documentation must be handled, as well as the electronic files
in a CD, to the Instituto Nacional de Salud , Cápac Yupanqui 1400, Lima
11, Perú, directed to the Director of the la Revista Peruana de Medicina
Experimental y Salud Pública or by electronic mail to
rpmesp@gmail.com, the electronic
formats are available at
http://www.ins.gob.pe/rpmesp/documentos.asp